THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE -- There is no law that requires a sports fan to love the NBA. There are, frankly, several reasons to be quite tired of it, not the least of which is the essential meaninglessness of the regular season (given its interminable length and how many teams get into the post-season). There are far too many teams, especially irrelevant ones, including our Timber-chihuahuas.That the Spurs are clearly the better team and these NBA Finals are not going to be particularly competitive is another legitimate reason to not pay attention.
But calls continue to come into the FAN from fans who clearly are lying to themselves when they offer their explanations for not watching these playoffs: Too many thugs in the league, too many off-the-court incidents, too much on-court preening, too much I-me-mine.
And all of this explains why you don't care to watch the San Antonio Spurs?
Stop it. The Spurs are the very personification of professionalism. They are about to win their fourth title in eight seasons. They are rock-solid from top to bottom. Their is a team game. They have several good individual players, but none play the self-absorbed, preening role that so many fans supposedly abhor. They rarely, if ever, make headlines, off the court. Robert Horry sullied his own reputation by going after Steve Nash, but with the Spurs, this is the exception, not the rule. There is not a team in the league that would not take Bruce Bowen, despite his careless elbows, if given the chance.
You want to call them boring (and to any legitimate basketball fan, they shouldn't be, not with the additions of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli)? Then stop pretending that the thing stopping you from watching is that the league is dominated by thugs and jerks. Stop pretending that it has to do with off-the-field incidents, when you gladly continue to watch the NFL, a league that has kept up nicely on the police blotter. Just admit you don't like the game.
And throw this in: If the Spurs, as good, and tough, and disiplined, and gifted as they are, don't do it for you, then you're admitting that deep down, you need the very controversy _ the Paris Hiltonization, if you will _ that you pretend to abhor.
